Hi Annker
Calci-worms are the larvae of a completely different insect from mealworms and I believe they just naturally have more calcium in them. Mealworms are the larvae of a type of beetle and calci-worms are the larvae of the black soldier fly. It’s considered that calci-worms have a better calcium to phosphorous ratio, although it seems the amounts vary a bit depending on what they have been fed on.
I have only checked this out briefly, at the moment, but a potential concern is that as they become more popular they may be fed on not such good diets themselves. So that on some information I found black soldier fly larvae fed on chicken feed have 29.49 calcium and 5.56 phosphorous which looks a good ratio. But those fed on restaurant waste had 1.41 calcium (substantially less) and 2.37 phosphorous. So not a good ratio. This is however, only one source. I have no way of knowing how reliable it is and I only checked the table of quantities and haven’t read the whole document.
So, whilst they are contained as part of a hedgehog food mix which I use, for me the jury is still out as to whether they should be fed in any other manner. It may be that people are tempted to buy the cheaper versions, which may have been fed on cheaper, food and thus not have so much calcium in them.
